Connecting The Dots

The newest evaluation by federal regulators operating under the Trump Administration’s new streamlined guidelines for fossil fuel projects has found that the Jordan Cove project will not significantly harm whales, fish and other protected species.

The elephant in the room is that this project will be the largest carbon emitter in the state and that it will, in fact, impact all species from whales and fish, to everything else. Unfortunately, this is the reality of current science that is friendly to industry from the very beginning posed to favor such projects.

You would think that these tactics are becoming obvious by now: data is considered in isolated contexts cut off from the reality of current times (such as watershed health, problems with salmon habitat) and the combined impact of numerous environmental stresses.

The end result is meant to benefit concentrations of capital and industry while the burden on public health and our common spaces becomes increasingly heavy.

In the next month, the Trump-appointed Federal Energy Regulation Commission will be making a final decision on the pipeline project. This is a window of time to raise concerns and communicate with political figures such as Sen. Ron Wyden, Gov. Kate Brown and State Lands Director Vicki Walker, who are not connecting the dots on what the passage of this pipeline will mean to this state.